The sceptic
June 24th 2008 06:01
We’re not going to get to any clear point on Climate Change, or Global Warming any day soon. Which is a great pity, because it’s probable there are plenty of issues we need to deal with in terms of climate, with or without the change.
I was reading Terence Corcoran’s article, Nothing Wacky About the Weather, in the Financial Post online. As the header says: When it’s cold, it proves climate change is taking place. And if it’s hot, it also proves climate change is taking place.
And that’s just about it. Now that Global Warming has become the catchphrase of the decade, pretty much ousting terrorism from the news, we’re stuck in a rut that’s neither good nor bad for us. So much emphasis on something that’s plainly not quite what it seems is driving us to the point where we’re going to start saying, I just don’t care.
And that’s not good either. There are always things we need to do to stop disasters happening, such as floods (Mr Corcoran talks about the Iowa floods, and how the levees there were just insufficient for the job). But not everything that happens can be attributed to the carelessness of human beings. Never could, never should.
We’re a city that seldom gets too much of anything: it’s never too hot, never too cold (although my hands are chilly as I type at the moment); we get very little snow (although you wouldn’t know that from the weatherforecasters’ constant cry of snow); not much frost, not as much rain as our Northern cousins who live in a warmer part of the country.
And yet a few years ago we got a sudden torrential downpour that flooded streets and shops and caused considerable damage. And then we got another one a few months later. Global Warming? Nope, just two isolated incidents which happened to come in the same year. There hasn’t been rain like that again since.
I’m a Global Warming sceptic, nowadays. And a Climate Change one. I take everything with a grain of salt and wait for it to be really proved. I could be a Chicken Little, waiting for the sky to fall, but just at this point in history, I think I’ll continue to hedge my bets.
I was reading Terence Corcoran’s article, Nothing Wacky About the Weather, in the Financial Post online. As the header says: When it’s cold, it proves climate change is taking place. And if it’s hot, it also proves climate change is taking place.
And that’s just about it. Now that Global Warming has become the catchphrase of the decade, pretty much ousting terrorism from the news, we’re stuck in a rut that’s neither good nor bad for us. So much emphasis on something that’s plainly not quite what it seems is driving us to the point where we’re going to start saying, I just don’t care.
And that’s not good either. There are always things we need to do to stop disasters happening, such as floods (Mr Corcoran talks about the Iowa floods, and how the levees there were just insufficient for the job). But not everything that happens can be attributed to the carelessness of human beings. Never could, never should.
We’re a city that seldom gets too much of anything: it’s never too hot, never too cold (although my hands are chilly as I type at the moment); we get very little snow (although you wouldn’t know that from the weatherforecasters’ constant cry of snow); not much frost, not as much rain as our Northern cousins who live in a warmer part of the country.
And yet a few years ago we got a sudden torrential downpour that flooded streets and shops and caused considerable damage. And then we got another one a few months later. Global Warming? Nope, just two isolated incidents which happened to come in the same year. There hasn’t been rain like that again since.
I’m a Global Warming sceptic, nowadays. And a Climate Change one. I take everything with a grain of salt and wait for it to be really proved. I could be a Chicken Little, waiting for the sky to fall, but just at this point in history, I think I’ll continue to hedge my bets.
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